Dedication

Sunday March 21st was Jaxten's first Sunday at church.  We knew we wanted to bring him to the alter and pray for him and our family the same way we did with Caden when he was born.  We mentioned it to the preacher earlier that week and they had an announcement in the church bulletin and everything!  Before the preaching, our interim pastor Preacher Jon (as Caden likes to call him), called us up to the front and introduced Jaxten to everyone.  He said we were going to have a little dedication and pray over the baby and our family. 

He spoke for a few minutes about the blessings that a baby brings to a family and how we as parents have a duty to raise that child up in the ways of the Lord.  The truth is that we are very blessed to have been given Caden and Jaxten.  That God would trust me enough to give me such great kids just amazes me.

Our family of 4!

We knelt down and started praying.

 

Preacher Jon got down and prayed with us too.

We thanked God for allowing us to have beautiful, healthy children.  We thanked him for all he has provided for our family.  We prayed for his grace to get through hard times that will inevitably come.  We thanked him for the day that he showed us the greatest mercy and saved our unworthy souls and prayed for the day that our children would come to know him as their personal savior too.  We thanked him for allowing us to be parents and asked him to help us raise them in the right way.  We know they are ours, but we told God that we wanted to give Jaxten back, meaning that we want him to grow to serve the Lord with all his heart and we want his life to be used in a way that pleases God.  We prayed for God to keep his protecting hand on them both and to keep them safe and healthy.   

Thank you Lord for your blessings on me. 

(written by The Easter Brothers)

As the world looks upon me, as I struggle along

They say I have nothing, but they are so wrong.

In my heart I'm rejoicing, how I wish they could see

Thank you Lord for your blessings on me. 

There's a roof up above me, I've a good place to sleep.

There's food on my table, and shoes on my feet.

You gave me your love Lord, and a fine family

Thank you Lord for your blessings on me.

Now I know that I'm not wealthy and these clothes are not new.

I don't have much money, but Lord I have you.

And to me that's all that matters, though the world may not see

Thank you Lord for your blessings on me.

There's a roof up above me, I've a good place to sleep.

There's food on my table, and shoes on my feet.

You gave me your love Lord, and a fine family

Thank you Lord for your blessings on me.

Rub-a-dub-dub, First bath in the tub!

Jaxten's umbilical cord, (aka per Caden, belly button boo-boo) fell off today!! YAY!!  That meant we got to do a real in the bathtub bath with soap!  It was a day I have really been looking forward to.  The whole "lay cold naked baby on a towel in the floor and sponge one body part at a time with used to be warm but now cold water" thing just wasn't working for us.  He did not like sponge baths one bit and he sure did let us know too.  He would be all tore up over it, Caden would start spazzing out, I would get all crazy and stressed which would make Scottie seriously wonder how he got stuck with a bunch of looney toons!  I can't even blame him for it though because I don't like stepping out of a shower into a cold bathroom. 

So today when that little rotten stump of skin fell off, we were clapping and YAYing all over the place!  Here we ALL go into my closet of a little bathroom.  And by all I mean me, Scottie, Jaxten, Caden and Pacey the 50lb dog.  Honestly it was a sight to see.  Nevertheless, we are all packed in like sardines and still excited about what was going to happen.  We had turned the heat up a little so it would be nice and warm in there and filled his little tub with water.  We had towels, wash cloths (because with a boy you definately need at least two: one to wash with and the other to place over the umm, you know, because as soon as he gets relaxed in the warm water he WILL shoot you!) soap, diaper, A&D ointment, yummy lavender lotion, baby gown, cameras, phones (to take pics that we could sent via message to all the grandparents and aunts), and I think that just about covers it.  Anyway, we got him undressed and he was no doubt thinking "Oh great, here we go again with the freeze-my-butt-off sponge bath." 

(What was I doing with my hand?)

Then, I gently put him in the little sling thingy that holds newborns off the bottom of the tub and................

Hmmm, this isn't so bad!

"Mom, why didn't we do this the whole time?  This is pretty nice!"

(See the appropriately placed washcloth? It's necessary!)

Caden was being the "big helper" by handing me things I needed and talking to his brother.

"Aahhhh, this is the life!"

"The only thing that could make this any better would be some milk!  But I'll just suck my thumb a little."

He really loved his first bath!  That is, until we got him out..............

He was pretty upset when we took him out.  But, overall it was a great success!  There is nothing better than the smell of a clean baby!  Add some Johnson's lavender lotion and it's like the smell of heaven!

Jaxten's Birth

It all began at 3:30am (which could have been my first clue because I went into labor at 3:30am with Caden also).  I woke up and had to pee (shocker, I know), and then I had the most awful pain.  I kind of blew it off, but it happened again 20 minutes later.  I woke up my husband and told him I had had two really bad contractions but it was probably nothing.  He said "I guess I'll go plug up the video camera so it can charge for a while just in case".  The next one was 11 minutes later.  Then.....BAM!  Every 3 minutes!  Back to back, non-stop!  I said "Uh, Scottie, maybe you should pack that video camera up and just plan on plugging it up at the hospital, cause' WE NEED TO LEAVE NOOOOOWW!!!!!!"  We were out the door!  Scottie was calling his mom, my mom, Heather, and my granny all while I was writhing in pain and agony in the front seat.  His foot mashed harder on the gas pedal during every contraction.  I told him I'd rather not wreck and die on the way and he would slow down a little for just a moment.  We made the 25-30 minute drive to the hospital in about 15 minutes!

We pulled up to the hospital just after 4:30am.  Last time we parked and we walked in and I was happy and excited and not in too much pain.  This time I made Scottie pull right up to the door and turn the emergency lights on.  There would be no leisurely walking for me.  So on went the flashers and he ran inside and grabbed a wheelchair and came flying back out.  Some poor little guy who was working at the desk came following behind I guess to see what was going on.  We came wheeling back in and once he saw my belly and the look on my face, you should have seen the look on his face!  He led us to the elevator and stepped inside long enough to push the 4th Floor button then bolted out of the closing doors and shouted "Good Luck".  I think he was thinking he did not want to deliver a baby in the elevator!

So we get out of the elevator and rolled up to the check-in desk where a nurse was taking her dear sweet time checking in another pregnant lady, who in my opinion did not appear to be in active labor.  So we waited FOREVER a few minutes and she looked at us and said "Oh, is she in labor?"

DUH (Excuse me, but I always double over and squeal while clinching my fists so hard they almost bleed every 2-3 minutes, that's just normal)  Whatever

We FINALLY get to a room (this is only about 4:50, but it seemed like eternity) and they check me and discover that I'm a good 6cm dilated and fully effaced.  BRING ME DRUGS NOW!!!!  They had to get me in a room first and then I had to wait because the anesthesiologist was busy.  It was around 6:00am when I got my epideral.  Relief, at last.  The dr came in and broke my water at 6:15am and I was 8cm dilated by then. 

Sometime after that, the epideral started wearing off a little and then it wore off a lot.  I told my nurse they had better fix it before I was ready to push, so in came the drug man again.  He really socked it to me this time.  I was absolutely useless from the waist down.  Couldn't even move a toe.  During all of this, the baby's heartrate was starting to drop every once in a while.  First there was one nurse checking the monitors, then there were 2, then they started flooding in the room which scared the fool out of me.  They put an oxygen mask on me and kept rolling me from one side to another.  They asked if I could get up on my hands and knees in the bed to try to re-position the baby so I tried.....and utterly failed.  I was so numb I couldn't even roll myself over much less get on my knees.  I kept asking what was going on and looking at Scottie and Kathy(Scottie's mom) and my mom, but nobody would say anything to me.  Kathy finally came over beside my bed and held my hand.  I knew she knew what was going on because she used to work there on the mother/baby floor.  I think everyone just didn't want to scare me.  They said they needed to hook up a heartrate monitor directly to the baby because the one wrapped around my waist was not picking up very well.  (Which I later found out was a little probe that they stuck in the top of his head.) (OUCH).  They said I was ready to push but they were still waiting on the doctor to get back.  The nurses started mentioning the word "c-section" and had me totally terrified.  Just then the doctor came in and so calmly stated "hey girl, let's get started, we need to get this baby out of there!" 

At 7:50am I started pushing.  Scottie was on one side and the nurse was on the other side.  After about 10 minutes, I had only pushed about 6-8 times.  Heather came bursting in the door (after standing in the elevator for several minutes because she got in and forgot to push a floor button) afraid she had missed it and Dr Lindel and Scottie started joking with her.  One of them (we won't name names here, but I have proof on video) totally dropped my leg and I almost slid right off the end of the table! 

I pushed once or twice more.......

   -----And at 8:05am-----

Jaxten Scott Speer was born

7lb 3.3oz , 21in

A perfect, precious little boy with the most gorgeous big lips!  Instant love at first sight!!

Welcome to the world!!!!!

Jaxten Scott Speer

Born March 6, 2010

 at 8:05am

7lb 3.3oz

21in

And here I am holding my new son for the first time!

The best feeling in the whole world!!

The story of his birth to come later.

Jaxten Scott 39 weeks!

Here is our precious little Jaxten....again! 

We went to an ultrasound appointment at Tiny Toes(where I had the other ultrasounds done) with my sister-in-law today to get another look at baby girl Speer. The poor thing was sleeping the whole time.  They barely got any good pictures at all.  But we could see enough to know she is gonna have some cheeks on her!

On the way there, Scottie was telling about his dream last night.  He said we were all sitting in the room watching the ultrasound when the technician said "Ashlea, why don't you hop up here on the table and we'll take another look at Jaxten!"  I told him that would be awesome, but it definately would not happen.  We've already had our 2 visits, and I'm only 1 week away from my due date.  Besides, it's a business and if they let people have free ultrasounds, they don't make money.  So I just blew off that whole notion.  Well, we got in there and watched the whole thing for baby girl Speer and got the biggest shock at the end.  The technician surprised us and asked if we would like to take one more peek at Jaxten since I was due in exactly 1 week!  I said of course I would!  He was wide open moving and kicking.  He gave us several great shots of his face(which kind-of made me feel bad since baby girl didn't wake up much and kept her face hidden).  But it was the neatest thing to see him again.  I can't wait to see him in person, like...on the outside!  I want to see those big pretty lips! 

Come on little man!  We are ready!

30th Birthday Luau Style

Scottie turned the Big 3-0 February 15th.  I had always wanted to throw him a big surprise party so I thought this would be the perfect year!  

**Note to self: DON'T PLAN SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTIES WHEN YOU ARE 36 WEEKS PREGNANT!***

You want to talk about stressfull?!?  Not sure what I was thinking when I decided that it would be a good idea to plan a surprise birthday party for Scottie when

#1 I was on a severe, hormonal and emotional roller-coaster pregnant

#2 I had just found out I had gall stones (MEGA OUCH) and had to completely change my diet

#3 I'm really horrible at keeping secrets

#4 This party took place 3 1/2 weeks before my due date

But....I pulled it off!  It was a great success overall.  Just had some minor problems along the way.  I never could have done this completely by myself, so I had a good friend from church helping me.  She helped plan, cook and decorate.  Blood, sweat and tears went into this party....Literally!  She was at the church decorating the day of the party and I hadn't got off work yet when she dropped a fold-up table on her foot and fractured it.  She just kept right on along though.  She wouldn't leave to go to the Dr until after the party was over.  Crazy girl!

Back to the party.  I wanted to do something fun and creative.  I was thinking about some kind of football party, but that would only be fun for Scottie and football season had just ended.  I contemplated a cookout, but hellooooo.....it's February.  Then it hit me!  An indoor Luau!  Perfect!  We absolutely loved our honeymoon trip to Hawaii so I knew Scottie would love it, and we could bring a little bit of summer to the cold dreary days of February.  I bought all kinds of Hawaiian decorations like grass table skirts, mini tiki torches, seashells, leis and blowup palm trees.  I had several of our pictures enlarged from our trip to Hawaii and bought cheap frames to put them on every table.  I asked Scottie's mom for pictures of him growing up and made a collage of his life from birth up until now.  I had his baby picture put on the cake.  Scottie's brother is a fantastic cook so he fixed us pork BBQ (I wanted a whole pig with a small pineapple in it's mouth but it was a little out of the budget).  My uncle fixed his famous baked beans and a friend fixed potato salad.  We bought a bunch of tropical fruit and made a fruit tray with dip and of course we had a cake and cupcakes from the best bakery of all time, Fancy Pastry! 

The fun (hmmm, maybe fun isn't exactly the word I should use) part was trying to keep this all a secret from Scottie (and Caden for that matter!).  I had items shipped to my work so he wouldn't see party supply stuff.  I had to hide the invitations in my car and hope he didn't go snooping.  I stole borrowed his cell phone to get his friends phone numbers so I could call and invite them.  I called one of his co-workers to see who he is friends with at work so I could invite them too.  The day of the party I went in to work late and left early to decorate.  I was standing in Wal-Mart printing pictures when Scottie called me.  I had to act like I was on break and was praying they didn't come over the intercom with some message like "Attention Walmart shoppers, Blue Light special on aisle 14".  (Don't think I've ever actually heard that at Walmart or any store. I guess I got that one from the movies.  LOL)  Then, he called again later that day after I had left.   I had instructed my co-workers to tell him I was not available and I would call him back.  Then they called me to tell me he called.  It worked!

The next dilema was getting him to the church on a Monday night without telling him why we needed to be there.  We ended up telling him that our singing group was going to practice that night.  We usually would grab something to eat before practice but I told him I had to run by the store after work so I would just meet him at the church.  Then, I didn't want him to get there too early, so I had my dad call and ask to meet him at a local guitar shop.  I knew that would keep his attention for a while.  But guess what?  They were walking around looking at everything and some guy that works there said they were getting ready to close.  Daddy kept stalling until they started turning the lights off.  So he texted me and I told him to take him somewhere else but don't let him eat.  He told Scottie they should go to the doughtnut shop and just have a doughnut and some coffee but Scottie said he wanted to go to Subway for a sandwich.  My poor dad tried really hard, but Scottie was determined to have a sub.  So they went to eat and they pulled into the church parking lot at just the right time.  I knew Scottie would be suspicious because of all the cars outside but I was just happy to make it that far with a secret.  (He later told me he just thought another church group was having some kind of function.)  He unloaded his guitars and started walking up to the front door.  Never had a clue until the door opened!

He was SO SURPRISED!!  I had everyone gathered around the front and we all yelled surprise when he walked in.  I think it took him a minute for everything to register.  He just kept smiling at me and I know he was thinking "how in the world did she pull this off without me knowing". 

This was the cake/dessert table.

 

The best cake in the world from the best bakery in the world!  The plates to the side were filled with colorful cupcakes and I wrapped the plates with some fake flower leis.  The coconut says "Just Maui'd" and has a painting of two fishes kissing!  We got that in Maui on our honeymoon.  The other coconut that looks like a monkey was bought in Hawaii when Scottie's brother and his wife celebrated their 10th anniversary over there.  If you zoom in on the picture collage at the top towards the middle you may be able to see Scottie as a young boy wearing a CAROLINA TARHEELS t-shirt!!

(Sorry honey, you know I had to broadcast that one!  All your Duke Puke friends are throwing up a little in their mouths!)

This is the fruit end of the food table.  We put the fruit dip in pineapple halves.  The pictures were taken in Maui.  Aren't those the cutest little tiki torches?!? 

I brought a Hawaiian shirt for Scottie to wear.  I had him a really pretty blue and white lei too, but he put it on his mom.  He's getting ready to blow out the candles.  (He actually let Caden do it). 

A party in the Speer family just isn't a party until Heather (Scottie's sister) smashes cake in the birthday person's face!  He chased her the rest of the night trying to get her back.  I don't think he was too happy about the whole thing though.  ;)

Get ready people.  I do not know why I'm even gonna post this one.  I guess it's good to be able to laugh at yourself sometimes!

Wait for it.........

Wait for it........

Here it comes!

OH. MY. WORD.

 

It's the BIG KAHUNA!

There I am in all my 'extra large grass skirt-Scottie's large hawaiian shirt-flower leis everywhere-36 weeks pregnant and about to pop' glory!

It was a great evening and we had a lot of fun!  I never could have pulled it off without a ton of help from a lot of great friends, so "Thank you" to all my peeps-you know who you are! 

I'm so glad I did it...... but may never do it again!

I'm still here.

Boy, if you think I don't ever post now, just wait until this baby gets here!  Although, I might have more time to post when I'm not at work all day.  What am I saying...I'll have a 3 1/2 yr old AND a newborn!  That will probably keep me busier than my full time job!  Oh well, guess you'll just have to take what you can get from me!  All 4 of you!(haha)

Well, I'm 36 1/2 weeks now.  That only leaves 3 1/2 weeks to go.  That's less than a month.  I absolutely can't believe it's almost here.  It just seems surreal that I have made it through  almost the entire pregnancy and I'll be holding a newborn baby in less than a month!  (Maybe.... I could always go late.  Cause I hold em' in really good, considering last time I went into pre-term labor at 23 weeks and still went 2 days past my due date!)  Either way, it won't be too long at all.  I'm really kindof nervous about some things though.  I'm not so nervous about having a newborn because I've been there, done that.  I already know what to do with a little boy, so we're good there.  But it makes me a little scared to think about having 2 kids.  I hear it's alot harder to go from 1 to2 than from none to 1.  So that makes me nervous.  And for some reason, I'm really freaked out about my water breaking in public.  I think I was worried about that the first time too, which didn't happen.  In fact, the dr had to break it while I was in labor.  They say if it happens it's generally not like dropping a jar of pickles in the floor anyway.  So it shouldn't be a big deal, but it still worries me.  I'm also afraid of the IV being put in too.  I know it's silly.  The big.... huge.... long.... epidural needle doesn't so much worry me, but the 18gauge IV almost terrifies me.  That sucker hurt last time!  I didn't even feel the epidural needle (I already had Stadol in me too).  I asked the nurse if she could numb me on my arm with lidocaine first, but she said she wouldn't be able to see the vein if she injected lidocaine in first.  Whatever.  I've had it done that way before, she just didn't know what she was doing.  I'll probably ask again this time, and they'll probably say no.  And they'll look at me like "Hello, you're about to push a whole baby out of your you-know-what and you're worried about the IV???"  I don't care.  I'm allergic to pain and I want to be numbed if possible. 

On a different note, I am still gaining weight even while on this no-fat no-taste bland gall bladder diet.  It's great not to have a gall bladder attack cause, well, it's hurts like I'm dying or something.  But it really stinks not to be able to eat good.  I'm so tired of grilled chicken and mashed potatoes.  I'll probably not eat either one of those foods for at least a year after this is over.  I just want something fried and greasy dipped slathered in ranch dressing so bad!  And some salsa dip!!  I just hope it fixes things after they take my gall bladder out and I don't still have to watch what I eat.  And I hope I don't die afterwards from the dr puncturing my intestines or something like what just happened to that House Representative man.  That would certainly be pretty bad.  But I'm trying not to worry too much about all of that.  Just focusing on getting my IV site numbed!

That's pretty much all I have time for right now.  I have to write about the awesome (if I do say so myself) surprise party that I threw for my husband's 30th birthday!  It was a hit! 

Later!